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我是獨立人士，開幕首天參觀了香港音響展。星期天用英文寫了一篇報告，巳在美國的computeraudiophile 發表。去年也發表了同類報告。因為鄙人與音響界全無關連，故此好壞話都可以直說。報告中難免有錯漏，請大家原諒。現將報告上載到這裹與大家分享。
The 2011 Hong Kong High End AV Show commenced on 5th August and I visited it an hour after its opening to the public so as to avoid queueing up with a thousand or more who wanted to buy LPCD, whatever that name implied. Well we have various types here, for example, AQCD, HQCD, Direct Cut CD, so many that I do not care to remember or find out their "virtues" based on which they are marketed. Still I had to line up behind and move with several hundred people before I could enter the Show that was spread on 3 floors of the Convention Centre.
This year there was no clear winner, though for the last two, the Avant Garde Trio were my top favorite. I would not go into the notes I took of each track coming from the various systems I visited. Would merely summarize the pros and cons of individual systems. Only two systems had me glued to the chair, on which I will give more details. For photos of the show, there are numerous ones already posted in a local forum and please visit:
http://www.review33.com/avforum/foru...64110714183953 and
http://www.review33.com/avforum/foru...60110805010247
The 2 systems sounding better than the rest
1. Rockport Arrakis driven by VTL electronics. This may well be the best sounding system in the show this year. Each Arrakis tower contains 7 drivers, two 15" on the inward side, and five in front, namely, two 8" mid bass, two 5" midrange and one 1" ring tweeter. The 7 ft tall tower weighs 900 lbs which is finished in glossy piano black. The man whom I described as amicable in the report last year was again running the demonstration, and he switched tracks between LP and digital one after another. The speakers were placed about 6 ft from the back wall and 10 ft apart whilst I was sitting at about the same distance away. The sound was well balanced from low to high, smooth and articulate. The female voice though placed in a large soundstage was quite focussed, only slightly larger than life. The voice had density, whilst having no spike or ringing. Images were well placed across the soundstage and there was adequate centre fill. Two minor qualms: a) I would like the ambience within the soundstage extend to the listening area, that is, merging of the two ambiences into one so that the listener has the illusion of participating in the live performance. Perhaps the use of tracks with such extension or with me sitting closer to the speakers might have been better in this regard. b) There was a track with the male voice sounding slightly coarse when he sang loud and the orchestral sound did not blossom in tandem with the requirement of the louder passage (sounding contained and strained). Again this might well the problem in the digital track itself.
Then I heard one track after another coming from the same album featuring electronic instruments. I looked round and found the responsible man having his lunch there (I skipped mine). I left though I would have liked to stay longer to listen to a larger variety of tracks.
2. MBL: In previous shows, I found fault with the sound of this line. Last year, the speakers (101) displayed incoherence of mid and low such that the two seemed out of phase with each other. (Speaker categories have undergone rationalization, with three lines now, namely, the Reference, the Noble and the Classic). Earlier when the flagship Xtreme were in the show, I found the midrange having coarse vocals, that I speculated to be caused by the thick metal strips used in constructing the Radialstrahler drivers. I am not sure whether the company has reworked and improved these drivers or not but the sound this year is enticing. And my eyes may also be failing me as I now seem to see corrugations in those metal strips that were not apparent previously.
The system in the room comprised all MBL products, from CD player through electronics to speakers (model 116 of the Noble line). The disc was apparently burned from selected tracks with the local exhibitor sitting there crossing his arms and letting the demonstration run in auto pilot mode. The lack of enthusiasm of this employee entailed oddities in sound because vocals were too loud and orchestral pieces too soft, especially the Reference Recording Tchaikovsky "Hopak" track that was recorded in much lower volume than normal. (Apart from the absolute phase I mark and change volume setting and L/R channel balances of all my albums). I sat through a dozen tracks as some were extracts not full length. Sound quality of the tracks varied. The male vocal singing "Soldier of Fortune" had a bloated voice that was also strained and grainy. But in another track, the female voice was focussed and smooth, whilst the guitar was clean though string resonance was inadequate. Balance was all to the right in this case. The sound of drums in several tracks was excellent, suitably tight, with impact and appropriate resonance of the drum body and skin, much better in quality than the Wilson Alexandria though the latter had larger quantity and impact. Noye's Fludde (Britten's piece) was reproduced very well. Children marching and singing from afar to close was impressive, much better than what I remembered from my Argo LP years ago. On the other hand, the sound of Rite of Spring was quite below, with brasses being compressed and timpani bloated and diffused. There were occasional moments of live realism, the electric guitar in one track and the electric bass in another. Piano was nicely produced as well. The piece of which I forgot the name, was in an LP released in the early years of Reference Recordings, that I used to listen to very often. The piano sound from the MBL was crisp, sharp with impact and had adequate resonance of the strings. On the other hand, the sound of the erhu (Chinese instrument with 2 strings played by a lady from Taiwan) was steely and electric sounding.
Systems of interest
* Talon speakers, Phoenix model from USA. The owner Mr Richard Bird was there to explain as did a representative of the electronics, Soulution from Switzerland. Seats were full and I was standing on the side. The sound from the speakers was very clean, 4 ceramic drivers on each side. As Mr Bird was standing close to me during the demonstration, I spoke to him. He was a physicist himself and bought over the company several years ago from the owner who still worked for the company. The crossovers were in a detachable box, facilitating changes and upgrades that might be made from time to time. At first he told me all the drivers were made in house but when I asked him about the process he used to form the ceramics, he admitted they were sourced from outside. The price was in the range of the Magico Q5. The box enclosure had a quasi transmission line inside but I could not understand the explanation from him as to how he arranged one transmission line to two bass drivers both of them being active (not one passive and the other active when he replied to my question).
* FAL brand drivers from Japanese with the designer being present. Basically two types of products are made by the company, air motion transformer (Heil) and flat diaphragm drivers (looking more rectangular in shape than those of KEF of former years). The AMT specs say its range is 1.2KHZ to 25KHz and the flat drivers, 27Hz to 12KHz. The local importer, Audio Space, made a speaker box to house them, each side having 2 flat units plus 1 AMT. The speakers were driver by one of the large tube amps made by Audio Space that produce and sell a wide range of tube gear. The sound was mixed probably in my view because of the less than good design of the speaker cabinet. I could hear very good sound from the gong, and plucking of the cello. But images within the soundstage were diffused and the bass had inadequate impact from those small flat driver units even though they were claimed to go down to 27 Hz. These drivers as well as the AMT are available to customers wishing to DIY their own speakers.
* Eggleton speakers were there but the person looking after them was away. I asked the man taking charge of the Magnepan 3.7 on the side as to when he thought the Eggleton speakers would be played. He thought that might be quite a while, thus I did not wait. As regards the 3.7, I looked at its back and found the ribbon tweeter to be similar in appearance to the ones on my vintage MG3s. I prefer the natural wood frames to the current ones painted black.
Rooms that did not retain me for long
* The Ascendo speakers from Germany driven by Burmester electronics and getting music from Metronome CD player on stands. The ribbon tweeters of the Ascendo may be moved back and forth to facilitate the owner achieve time alignment. The first track I listened to featured male voice accompanied by a piano. His voice was shrill and there was quite a bit of ambience echo. The piano and the voice was indistinctly separated as they should be. The second track had a muddy low end. I left soon after.
* Adam Tensor speakers driven by Mod Wright Instruments electronics, with vinyl LP as source. These speakers use air motion transformers that seem to be in vogue currently. The first track I listened to was a live recording of a male singer in concert. The vocal was unimpressive whilst the bass was muddy. The second track had bass and drum coming from the centre, much better definition than in the first track. However the highs stuck to the speakers enclosure, suggesting dispersion problem. No further interest in listening to them anymore.
* Avalon Transcendent speakers driven by Jeff Roland electronics with CD as source. The first track was violin accompanied by piano. The most articulate sound I ever heard from Avalon speakers that are usually not my cup of tea. But the sound pressure level was too soft for the noisy environment. The second track was a female vocal singing a bossa nova number. Her voice was diffused and laid back.
* Tannoy Royal Kingdom speakers partnering Esoteric electronics and CD player. I commented last year about the coarse and grainy midrange and screechy highs. This year it was better because the volume was lower but overall still unacceptable to my ears. I particularly went up to listen to the speakers at close range before I left. Yes, the distorted female voice emanated from the little concentric unit in the cone bass driver. There was a smaller Sphere from Cabasse, called L'Ocean but it was on the side and not hooked up when I went in.
* Arabesque: the glass model was on silent display on the side. Hooked up was the cone and box model called Arabesque III. The source was from CD player called Audio Analogue from Italy. Carmina Burana was playing. The bass sounded alright but the choir sounded grainy and strained at crescendo. Digital sounding overall.
The second track featured female vocal that sounded quite well. But the banjo stuck to the speakers. Whilst the bass was from the centre, it did not have adequate tightness and impact.
* Wilson Alexandria. The bass was overwhelmingly loud with impact. But the quality did not match, meaning blurred sound that soiled the surrounding ambience as well. Also the Hoppak track from Reference Recording was played but the volume was so low that did not reveal at all the quality of this track.
* German-Physiks speakers. I always have high regard for their DDD drivers. This time the Unlimited Mark II speakers were being played, with Brinkmann amps and Brinkmann turntable also from Germany. The first track was the title track of the "Wall" album by Pink Floyd. High hat was good and overall sound was clean. The second track was "Lemon Tree" that was probably taken from a Brothers Four album. The two leading voices stuck close to the left and right speakers, were a bit coarse and strained though smooth (no spikes) and no ringing. Whilst the occasional accompaniment of voices, though in the centre area, were vague and diffused. The acoustic guitars had virtually no harmonics of the strings.
Another track was "Carmen" played from the BMC CD. This track had abundance of marimba percussion but it had severe ringing. Although there was sound from the centre, the bulk were from two sides near the speakers, lacking a proper spread.
I asked the man there what time the larger model would be played. This one had an independent column of two DDD drivers (instead of one in the 11) and two separate enclosures for woofers (instead of the 11 having the DDD sitting on one single box). He said the next day, thus I went away.
* Sonus Faber: the Amati as well as the Gaurneri were on silent display.
* Quad: only cone drivers in box enclosure were played whilst the legendary electrostatics were absent.
* JBL: the sound was opaque. The Infinity Prelude Forty (ribbon mids and highs) were on the side for silent display. They are speakers that I certainly want to listen to.
* Focal Stella Utopia speakers were there driven by McIntosh electronics. The room was packed and as I had a session several months ago in the showroom, I did not stay for long.
* There were floor standing and fairly large speakers called Marten from Sweden. The exhibitor used a MacBook Pro. The sound was unsatisfactory, namely, the sound field was large but instruments were vague and artificial. I suggested he bypassed Amarra and played the same track merely with iTunes. He told me by that he would not be able to play 24/96 tracks as he was doing with Amarra. I did not spot Audio MIDI on the dock of the computer. I advised him the inability to play high res tracks was mainly because his DAC was not async. I was able to play 24/192 and 24/352.8 when I used USB to connect to AMR and MSB DACs respectively. He would check Audio MIDI and his DAC after the show.
* The Devialet that shot to fame recently was there, decoding digital tracks and driving Canton floor standing speakers from Germany (Devialet contains DAC and class D amp in the same casing). The room was unable to retain visitors who popped in and left quickly. I was practically the only one sitting there most of the time. Tracks were played from a computer placed on a side table where an European chose and clicked. As I was the only one there and he probably saw my facial expression of disapproval of the sound, he asked if I would like to listen to some classical music. I walked over with him to the computer and requested him firstly to defeat the Amarra. He said that was not his computer and he did not know how to do it. He asked a local man from the importer. This man said the sound from Amarra was better and declined to skip it. I asked this European who was wearing a Devialet T-shirt how he compared the sound from the setup in France with what he now heard. He said he would prefer the speakers here to be better sounding. He then played me a track with voices. I told him before the track was finished that in my view the voices sounded good but the bass had inadequate impact. As there was no point for me to stay longer, I apologized for disturbing them and thanked him for treating me well. In my view this was a nice high end product from France that fell into the hands of a local importer who seemingly did not know how to present its virtues.
Bits and Pieces
* Two speaker systems that I yearn to listen to but the importers only rented the silent display area. The KEF Blade and Muon, and the Karma Grand.
* The Densen gears, CD players and electronics were there. The DeMagic CD mentioned by reader Peter St was not there for purchase. Anyway it was supposed to demagnetize the CD player and I honestly was unable to figure out how it would improve the performance of high resolution tracks saved in the computer as suggested by Peter.
* The Avant Garde room only had a smaller speaker of that line whilst the Kondo speaker made its debut. When I went into the room, Kondo speaker already finished its turn of play. There was a disc useful to LP owners, selling for US$25. This disc when played with the cartridge on the turntable sent off a sound that was picked up by an application downloaded in iPhone or iPad. The exhibitor showed the cursor on the screen of his iPad, that moved progressively, putting up green color if the pitch picked up from the speakers was correct and turning red if it wasn't. If it was red, the owner should adjust the speed of his turntable. Much more precise than the days of old when we had to look at dots on the turntable to guess. There was a short Q&A session with several DVDs to be given away. I did not intend to compete but when a question had dead air, I raised my hand, gave the correct answer and got one.
* I slipped off for a while to have a scoop on cone of Movenpick ice-cream. When I returned a band was playing in the foyer of the exhibition hall. It comprised some two dozen members, clarinet, saxophone, cornet, horn, French horn, trombone, tuba, bass drum, snare, triangle and tambourine. I listened through several numbers, standing at the front row perpendicular to the side of the players some 6 ft away. I was imaging two speakers being placed at the position of the players. I heard the sound blowing out to me and the merging of the ambience of the listening area and that of the players area, two sonic phenomena I always cherish.
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Arrakis 與將軍
這個訊息是特別寫給將軍Steven Cheng的。
看來將軍對Arrakis揚聲器蠻有意思。將軍未決定前我建議他試聽一下Avant Garde Trio連同兩對(4 隻)低音號角(共8隻12吋單元)用Kondo前後級推動。我在香港代理商的陳列室聽過兩次。笫一天的下午是我帶備電腦集中聆聽裹面的24/192和24/352.8聲軋。一星期後的下午，我帶了十多片直刻唱片到陳列室。這次加上了Kondo 唱頭、唱盤和唱頭放大器。兩次的聲音各有千秋，是我聽過最靚聲的組合。我不用黑膠這流行名稱，因為我有幾片直刻片是用白膠的，當時的出品人說白膠更好聲。
Avant Garde Trio 與 Arrakis 的比較就不好說，因為這級數的器材沒有絕對的優劣，基本上是那一個組合是最接近用者的口味和喜愛。
知道將軍喜歡Carmina Burana。這也是我最喜歡的曲目之一，所以我往聽現埸多次。很多人都推介EMI Previn 的那張LP, Telac 那張也不錯。我個人喜歡看那張小澤征爾指揮柏林愛樂的LD, 因我覺得Kathleen Battle唱得非常好。
如果將軍有興趣試聽Avant Garde Trio + Kondo 組合，請打電話到香港代理，聲望音響，852-21301928。最好是請他們預早安排將軍指定的唱片。
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若有超過3個人需求我就處理嘍 
 作者: dandy
小葉大,有機會是否可以團購這張:)
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小葉大真的是好人...
小弟也已經買了這張.. (太早買了沒有跟上這個團購～)
聽『心動』真的是感觸良多...
非常有感情的演繹，中後段伴奏齊出時雞皮疙瘩都起來了！
強烈推薦大家啦...
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